The role of language in shaping culture and civilizational progress is well documented across time and place. India, in particular, has immense diversity when it comes to language and dialects, which have existed for millennia. Post the colonial rule, there has been a marked shift towards the English language being the aspirational goal to improve one’s life at the expense of our native languages. This book provides a factual counter to many of the myths prevalent about the supposedly inescapable need for the English language and policy suggestions to address this problem.

While the book is loaded with data, the author’s arguments primarily rest on three main aspects. First, that research consistently points to mother tongue education best for a child’s cognitive, social, and cultural development. The best-performing countries in terms of GDP per capita have the highest form of education available in their native tongue. In contrast, the lowest-performing ones have their education in a foreign language. These countries also use their mother tongue for science, technology, higher education, law, and business.

Second, the systematic state policy of pushing English as the only language for the highest echelons of the government, be it the courts, administrative services, or the armed forces, presents a glass ceiling for most citizens of India. They neither have the means nor the environment to acclimatize to a foreign language. This results in active discrimination by the state against its citizens and penalizes them for not knowing a language not native to them.

Third, with the advent of the IT sector, there is a demand for English fluent candidates, even while MNCs worldwide work and hire in the local languages of the countries they operate in. This forcing of English for supposed economic benefits is both culturally and economically devastating. It leads to the increased devaluation and erasure of Indian languages. They’re slowly being relegated to being languages of literature.

To be clear, the author doesn’t recommend an overhaul of the English language altogether, nor adopt a new standard or uniform language. Instead, he provides various solutions to address this problem from the primary to senior levels. For example, changing the importance of English from a medium of instruction to only a language used for communication would go a long way in strengthening our hold and confidence in our languages. He also provides suggestions for uniform scripts which can be easily translated across languages and mentions the role technology can play in bridging this gap.

Finally, the author goes through case studies of different countries that have adopted their native languages for their usage. Most notable among these is Israel, which revived Hebrew (an almost dead language). Within a century, it has one of the best technical universities in the world. Other examples include China and Japan.

This book serves only as a starting point to understand the enormous implications of language policies on our populace. At the very least, it should make us step back and think about the path we are heading as unwitting proponents of the English language.

Also published here.